Collateral Murder (With Videos)

Overview5th April 2010 10:44 EST WikiLeaks has released a classified US military video depicting the indiscriminate slaying of over a dozen people in the Iraqi suburb of New Baghdad — including two Reuters news staff.

Reuters has been trying to obtain the video through the Freedom of Information Act, without success since the time of the attack. The video, shot from an Apache helicopter gun-site, clearly shows the unprovoked slaying of a wounded Reuters employee and his rescuers. Two young children involved in the rescue were also seriously wounded.

Collateral Murder – Wikileaks – Iraq (Short Version)

Collateral Murder – Wikileaks – Iraq (Full Version)

The military did not reveal how the Reuters staff were killed, and stated that they did not know how the children were injured.

After demands by Reuters, the incident was investigated and the U.S. military concluded that the actions of the soldiers were in accordance with the law of armed conflict and its own “Rules of Engagement”.

Consequently, WikiLeaks has released the classified Rules of Engagement for 2006, 2007 and 2008, revealing these rules before, during, and after the killings.

WikiLeaks has released both the original 38 minutes video and a shorter version with an initial analysis. Subtitles have been added to both versions from the radio transmissions.

WikiLeaks obtained this video as well as supporting documents from a number of military whistleblowers. WikiLeaks goes to great lengths to verify the authenticity of the information it receives. We have analyzed the information about this incident from a variety of source material. We have spoken to witnesses and journalists directly involved in the incident.

WikiLeaks wants to ensure that all the leaked information it receives gets the attention it deserves. In this particular case, some of the people killed were journalists that were simply doing their jobs: putting their lives at risk in order to report on war. Iraq is a very dangerous place for journalists: from 2003- 2009, 139 journalists were killed while doing their work.

‘Collateral Murder’: Al-Jazeera Speaks with Julian Assange of WikileaksVideo of US attack in Iraq ‘genuine’

First Published: Apr. 05, 2010 – Al Jazeera

The editor of one of the internet’s biggest sources of classified government information says there is strong evidence to suggest that video footage of an alleged US attack on Iraqi civilians is genuine.

Julian Assange, the editor of WikiLeaks.org, told Al Jazeera that the footage, released on Sunday, corroborates witness testimony.

The video is believed to show a US helicopter firing at civilians in Iraq in 2007, during an attack in which 12 civilians were killed, the website said.

So, thanks to Wikileaks.org, Americans now know that their soldiers often gun down civilians in occupied countries during reckless missions based on little or no intelligence (in every sense of the word). This will no doubt come as a great shock — yea, a veritable political earthquake — in a land where the top commander in what is now its chief war just recently confessed that his troops were slaughtering an “amazing” number of civilians who posed no threat whatsoever.

We all recall the vast hue and cry that greeted this astounding admission by Afghan top gun General Stanley McChrystal, who was hand-picked by the Nobel Peace Laureate himself to lead America’s noble crusade to stamp out Muslim extremism in Central Asia by killing innocent Muslims all over Central Asia. No less than the New York Times its own self reported prominently on McChrystal’s chilling candor. To be exact, the “Good War” general told his troops, by videoconference:

“We have shot an amazing number of people, but to my knowledge, none has ever proven to be a threat.”

Remember how the Democrats in control of Congress rushed to set up special committees to investigate the murderous facts behind this admission of atrocity? Remember how the media went 24/7 on wall-to-wall coverage of the Potomac-churning aftermath of McChrystal’s unprecedented mea culpa? Remember how the president himself held a special news conference to offer “America’s sincere and shamed apology to the innocent victims we have killed so tragically in such amazing numbers”?

And hey, remember how just this weekend, the purple mountain majesties and fruited plains rang with howls of righteous rage when it was confirmed that American Special Forces troops really did kill three innocent women (along with two officials of the American-installed Afghan government) during a savage night raid on a compound of sleeping civilians in February? Remember how all the weekend TV talk shows were filled with America’s great and good lining up to denounce the weeks and weeks of outright lies that the Pentagon had told about the killings? Remember how the Democrats in Congress, once again, launched a special committee of investigation into the charges by American-backed Afghan officials that the U.S. Special Forces troops had actually dug their bullets out of the bodies of the slaughtered women in order to cover their tracks after the massacre?

While I am certainly no prophet, I think I am safe in saying we will see a similar reaction to the gut-wrenching footage unearthed by Wikileaks. The American people are simply too good, too just to let stand such a foul besmirching of their national honor. After all, didn’t they rise up as one after the Abu Ghraib atrocities were revealed in 2004, and boldly oust the architects of these crimes in the ensuing presidential election? Didn’t they take to the streets in their millions when first Bush and then Obama claimed the right to have any citizen put to death without charges or trial simply by declaring the victim a “suspected terrorist”? Didn’t a great groundswell of public ire force Congress to open impeachment proceedings against George Bush and Dick Cheney for their Soviet-style gulag of concentration camps and systematic tortures — and threaten similar justice for Barack Obama’s continuation and cover-up of this system? Didn’t the American people demand a national day of mourning and atonement when they realized that hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis had been murdered in a war based on false pretenses and cynical manipulation?

So let us have faith in the American people. They have proven time and again in this last decade that they will not countenance crimes and atrocities being committed in their names. They will not abide leaders who unleash a war machine of blood money and blind fury against innocent people. When push comes to shove, when the truth is revealed to them, they will always — always — do the right thing.

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4 Comments on “Collateral Murder (With Videos)”

Big choppers and big balls, tough guys with overkill murder equipment and a frontal lobe lobotomy, no conscience, no care, no shame.

Are you all back in the USA now? Are your vaccines killing you yet? Is the DU in your body contaminating everything you touch, your wife, your kid? Does your government give a shit?

There is a reckoning for all trespassors that will come and there is no turning it away. For those who show no mercy, no mercy will be given.

You can be sure that when those grunts on the ground saw your big-balls handiwork and the 2 little children bleeding and crying they were sick to their stomachs. They were ashamed to be called Americans, as they ran to find help for those kids, only to be told to dump them in a local clinic.

If we do not take this government/NWO by the throat, and spill some blood doing it, we are doomed.
In one hour we will burn, in one hour we will be judged and brought to ruin.

Guys, i just have one question, HOW CAN YOU F***** live with yourself?

The 17-minute version uploaded by Wikileaks goes well beyond responsible journalism and the stated mission of Wikileaks to the point where it is propagandistic and misleading. This video, Wikileaks Deception, includes footage not seen in the Wikileaks version and provides the context and necessary annotations to get the full context of the incident, including discussions of hostile gunfire, the presence of an AK-47 and RPG, and other framing factors. To their credit, Wikileaks did include an unedited 39 minute version, but chose to propagate the 17 minute version with deceptive analysis.